About that name...

Why Sincerely Carolinas?

I've been dreaming up a blogger network for a little over a year now.

I've had numerous talks with Justin about it.  He has a business degree from The Citadel so he's always up for a new idea.  He's also a Marine so he's very analytical and a micro-manager.  He can look at things in a realistic manner, while I tend to see the big picture.  He's good at details, I'm good at dreaming...the perfect balance for launching a business.

There was one hurdle:  we needed a name.  I have a tendency to get pretty intense when it comes to words.  My bachelor's degree in Communications from Lander University and my Master of Speech-Language Pathology degree from The University of South Carolina may reflect that in a formal manner.  Real-life is another story.  I read 3-4 books at a time, we have stacks of children's books in every room in our home and using a thesaurus gives me a rush...trust me, I know how strange this is.  Justin still hasn't agreed to play Scrabble with me yet; he's probably scared to see that competitive side of me.

Okay, back to the name.

I pondered over the name of this network for months.  My personal blog, which I had been running for nearly 2 years needed a name makeover.  Sweatpants & High Heels was my creative outlet when I became a new mom.  Over the past year, my writing evolved and I wanted to share more of my life story and connect with people of all seasons of life.  I wanted it to be very personal and inviting.  So in 2014, Sweatpants & High Heels became Sincerely, Alli .  

Not coincidentally, I had this vision of our Carolinas blogger network being very personable and inviting.  I craved a network that could showcase this beautiful region of the world, bring some unique marketing strategies to the table for businesses and brands around the globe, and most importantly, make a difference with our voices in a collective way.

There's a unique vibe to the Carolinas that is inviting.  Some of the things we're notorious for are wrap around porches with rocking chairs, pearls and bow ties, flip flops and sundresses, and grits and sweet tea to name a few.  So, in short, Sincerely Carolinas follows a very close connection with my personal blog, which you can read here.  The best part about Sincerely Carolinas is that it's collective..several unique voices collaborating to do great things.

I follow a lot of bloggers on the west coast and in the mid west.  California and Texas are saturated with them; as I view posts about their blogger meetups and weekends, I envision the events we have in store for Sincerely Carolinas' future.  We would love for you to join us. 

Our website is a work in progress.  With two little girls, church, career commitments, and a shoestring budget, you will likely see this website evolve slowly.  Our first goal is to have the network database set in place by mid-February so that people can begin to join and network with each other.   We hope to start hosting contributors in the spring, and we hope to launch our first event sometime this summer.  

We have what seems like thousands of to-do's to mark off as we build this business...and I'm sure many of you reading this do as well.  So today, I'll leave you with this quote that has helped me over the past week.

You don't build a business.  You build people, and then the people build the business. -unknown